The use of bales may be an efficient and effective way to collect and store certain kinds of materials that otherwise may exist in a loosely gathered form. In agriculture, for example, bales may be a widely used method for collecting and storing grasses and other components such as hay, alfalfa and the like. Generally speaking, such bales may be formed by compressing the collected components into bundles, and then tying down or wrapping the bundles as bales to maintain the collected components in a compressed state. Such bales may be a variety of sizes, however a square 3′×3′×7′ bale may be typically. Moreover, a bale may contain variably sized “flakes” or portions that may be defined by sheer fault lines that more easily break and separate in response to an applied force. In many instances such bales may be broken up to be used for the feeding of animals. For example, a bale may broken off, or “flaked” into multiple portions, with each individual “flake” being distributed, for example, throughout a field.
In many applications which are known in the art, the end result is not to flake, but shred the bale during distribution. However, especially in the case of livestock feeding it is desirable to have larger chunks of hay pulled off of the bale in a relatively gentle manner. Thus, fewer small pieces of hay, which tend to get ground into the soil or fall out of the bottom of a feeding apparatus, rather than being consumed by an animal, may be avoided.
While the effort to form and flake individual bales is significant, additional time and labor may be required to handle and process the individual bales in order to put them to a more productive use. For example, individual bales may be formed in a field environment directly from cut grass. This may result in numerous individual bales sporadically located throughout a field. To put these individual bales to a productive use, however, it may be required to collect them and store them at a centralized location, and then transport them to a desired location to be flaked and distributed, for example, so as to provide feed for livestock. The effort required to collect and distribute such individual bale flakes may entail an inefficiency capable of improvement.
Various attempts have been made to produce a baler capable of providing the desired “flaking” capabilities described above, however, each has fallen short for a number of reasons. Most principally, many balers known in the art, such as Griller (U.S. Pat. No. 6,685,120), Hughes (2003/0062433) and/or Maclay (U.S. Pat. No. 6,764,274), all of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety, all utilize large and complex balers with multiple moving elements that are each susceptible to mechanical failure. As the number of elements and steps in such processes increase, there may be an increased risk of failure for any given step, perhaps adversely impacting the reliability of such baler. In addition, such systems are generally large and cumbersome, and may not be easily adapted to a variety of transports, such as a tractor, front end-loader, truck and/or skid-steer as some examples.
The foregoing problems regarding baling and feed distribution systems and processes may represent a long-felt need for a simple and effective solution to the same. While implementing elements may have been available, actual attempts to meet this need may have been lacking to some degree. This may have been due to a failure of those having ordinary skill in the art to fully appreciate or understand the nature of the problems and challenges involved. As a result of this lack of understanding, attempts to meet these long-felt needs may have failed to effectively solve one or more of the problems or challenges here identified. These attempts may even have led away from the technical directions taken by the present inventive technology and may even result in the achievements of the present inventive technology being considered to some degree an unexpected result of the approach taken by some in the field.